D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education)

Captain Randy M. Aguillard, supervisor of the D.A.R.E. program, has served the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office for 32 years. He has worked in Corrections, Uniform Patrol, School Drug Task Force, Burglary and General Investigations. Captain Aguillard has been an instructor for the D.A.R.E. program since 1994, and has received certification in numerous areas including Elementary and Middle School Curricula, Parent Program, Mentor and Training Facilitator. Is a Baker High School graduate and has a Bachelor’s in Criminal Justice from LSU. Captain Aguillard is also a certified D.A.R.E. trainer and often conducts and hosts state and national seminars. He is a training staff member for the Capitol Area Regional Training Academy delivering blocks of instructions on Crime Prevention and Crisis Negotiations to the cadets and is a certified Hostage/Crisis Negotiator and proudly serves as Honor Guard member. In 2017, Governor John Bel Edwards appointed Randy Aguillard to the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Board.

In his free time he actively participates in the Boys Scouts of America Istrouma Council, Girl Scouts of America, Hugh O'Brien Youth Leadership Training, Most Blessed Sacrament Weekend Confirmation Team, The Easter Bunny Foundation, Gold Wing Riders Association, and serves as a Eucharistic Minister at St. Jude Church. He’s been happily married to his wife Jamie for 30 years and together they have two children. He is a third generation law enforcement officer.

D.A.R.E.
The East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office is proud to participate in a program which teaches children about the dangers of drug and alcohol use and the violence which often accompanies it.

The D.A.R.E. Program is at the forefront of substance abuse prevention education. The East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office successfully implemented D.A.R.E. in the Fall Semester of 1994. Currently D.A.R.E. is taught in 26 Private/Parochial and 19 Public Schools in East Baton Rouge Parish. During the 2011-2012 school year over 2,400 upper elementary students and 1100 middle school students graduated from the D.A.R.E. Program.

D.A.R.E. is designed to give young people the facts about drugs and alcohol and to "inoculate" them against negative peer pressure by teaching them self-management and resistance skills. The Sheriff's Office provides 4 uniformed Deputies, who are thoroughly trained to teach D.A.R.E.. These instructors are assigned up to 7 schools per semester, and visit each assigned school at least 1 day a week for 12 weeks to present an innovative curriculum that emphasizes self-esteem, taking responsibility for one's own behavior, and saying "no" to drug experimentation. D.A.R.E. focuses special attention on students in elementary school exit grades (5th or 6th ) who are not yet likely to have been led by their peers to experiment with alcohol, tobacco and other drugs and are, therefore, more receptive to prevention education.

A basic precept of the D.A.R.E. Program is that elementary school children lack sufficient social skills to resist peer pressure and to say no to drugs. D.A.R.E. instructors do not use the scare tactics of traditional approaches that focus on the dangers of use. Instead, the instructors work with children to raise their self esteem, teach them how to make decisions on their own, and help them to identify positive alternatives to substance abuse.

Many people believe that, over time, a change in public attitudes will reduce the demand for drugs. D.A.R.E. seeks to promote that change by reaching children at an early age. Equally the D.A.R.E. officers help children develop more mature decision-making capabilities that they can apply to many different situations as they grow up. Drug Abuse Resistance Education is our most promising long-range solution. D.A.R.E. has helped to produce future generations of young adults who not only have no appetite for drugs, but who also have the strength of character to dissuade others from drug abuse to save this nation's most vital resource, our children.